28 November 2022
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt MP, has announced the decision that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Health Education England (HEE) have been instructed to carry out an independently verifiable long-term workforce plan for the Health and Care sector amongst measures in his Autumn Budget statement.
The calls for this data to be open to scrutiny was a key objective of BSR and the Strength in Numbers Coalition, a group made up of over 100 Health and Care organisations, which came together to lobby the government over workforce challenges. HEE had already begun work on a long-term plan for the Health and Care workforce on a 5-, 10- and 15-year timeline, but had not been required by government to make the data underpinning the plan to be in the public domain and verified as accurate by an independent body.
BSR President Dr Sanjeev Patel said, “This decision by the government represents a huge win for BSR, the Strength in Numbers Coalition and the whole of the Health and Care profession. Long-term workforce planning remains the single most important task the government must embark on to build a fit for purpose and thriving Health service.
"It is therefore a promising development that the data underpinning this planning will be open to scrutiny by the sector and independently verified as accurate. I’d like to thank all our members and supporters for their participation in our campaign in this area and I know through our continued collective action we can win the policy needed to secure our profession and our much-loved Health service into the future.”
Other key announcements in the Budget statement included:
- Increasing the NHS England budget by £3.3 billion in 2023-24 and again in 2024- 25 to enable action to improve emergency, elective and primary care performance towards pre-pandemic levels;
- making available an additional £2.8 billion in 2023-2024 and £4.7 billion in 2024-2025 to help support adult social care and discharge in England;
- An uplift in the Barnett formula to reflect increased government spending commitments in Health and Education. This results in additional funding of around £1.5 billion for the Scottish Government, £1.2 billion for the Welsh Government and £650 million for the Northern Ireland Executive.
BSR President Sanjeev Patel responded to the package by saying. “The Budget measures announced by the government for Health and Social care represent a step in the right direction, with funding being increased across all four nations to meet the significant challenges facing the sector.”
“However, as the recent National Audit Office report into NHS performance has shown, our Health service requires this step change to continue apace if we are to tackle the combined issues of inflation, increasing demand for services and backlogs not yet cleared because of the pandemic.”
He added, “Our incredible Rheumatology teams, as a part of the entire health service, make an immeasurable difference to the quality of life of the 18 million patients living with musculoskeletal conditions. And it is this improved patient health and well-being which powers our nation’s economic and civil life.
"We therefore need the government to empower our health sector with the resources it needs to meet the growing demand for services and allow us to play a vital role in our national recovery post-pandemic.”